Angela Manese-Lee

Articles

In response to community criticism about the Charlottesville Police Department's months-long procedure of asking certain black men to voluntarily provide DNA samples in their search for the serial rapist, Police Chief Timothy Longo has temporarily stopped the practice.
Calling it a "common sense decision," Longo said that due to the level of concern raised in Monday's Clark Hall community meeting, the police department stepped back to "re-engineer the process."
"We decided to step back to look at our process to consider issues raised by the community and reach a common ground that is respectful of community values, but at the same time, allows us to continue our investigation," he said.
Although the department has had the ability to use the DNA sampling procedure -- called the "buccal swab" -- since April 2001, the serial rapist case was the first chosen to include it.
According to Longo, police have not acquired a buccal swab since Monday night.
In a private meeting tomorrow, Longo will present specific future plans and changes for investigation procedure to a handful of community representatives.
African-American Affairs Dean M.

Three University students were held up early Friday morning in a pair of armed robberies that occurred within minutes of each other on the train tracks near Rugby Road.
Charlottesville Police currently are investigating the incidents and have yet to arrest any suspects.
In both robberies, suspects produced silver handguns before demanding money.
City Police Chief Tim Longo said, that based on physical descriptions of the suspects and weapons, the location of the incidents and the time they occurred, the incidents appear related but are being investigated separately.
In the first incident, a group of three black males and one white male approached two University students -- one male and one female -- as they walked along the railroad tracks toward Lambeth Residence Halls, according to the police report.
The white male, who was described as 5 feet 7 inches tall, 130 to 140 pounds, with short-cropped black hair and a black T-shirt, threatened the students with a gun and stole a small amount of money.
Longo said one of the students, the 20-year-old male, told police that the suspect holding the gun cocked it and pointed it at him.
In the second incident, a 21-year-old male student was walking on the train tracks in the same area when two men stopped him, produced a gun and tried to rob him.

In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Charlottesville's circuit court, fourth-year Commerce student Luis Avila is seeking damages from fourth-year College student Joshua Weatherbee and Weatherbee's fraternity, Alpha Delta Phi of Virginia, Inc., for charges that include alleged assault and battery and racial and ethnic harassment and violence.
The suit also claims the fraternity is guilty of gross negligence and negligence in preventing the alleged attack on Avila.
On Dec.

With local and national blood supplies dipping to dangerously low levels, Virginia Blood Services spokesperson Nancy Deane offered a frightening scenario: a bad accident lands you in the emergency room and you need a blood transfusion -- fast.

Departing from a career that has included everything from licensing and insuring vehicles to growing the University's endowment from $60 million to over $1.8 billion, University treasurer and UVIMCO president Alice Handy will step down Dec.

The Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce honored "the voice and the face of the University" Wednesday night when it presented Leonard Sandridge, executive vice president and chief operating officer, with its highest accolade -- the Paul Goodloe McIntire Citizenship Award.
The Chamber established the annual award in 1975 as a way of recognizing citizens' outstanding contributions to the community.
"Our Chamber award is named in honor of Paul Goodloe McIntire, whose goodwill set a standard of service that others through the years have reached for while helping to weave a fabric of selflessness that continues to provide for our community and its citizens," said former Chamber chair Michael Gaffney at the presentation Wednesday.

With the job market in the shape it is, finding work is hard enough. When you add the need for work authorization, increasingly strict visa rules and the pressure to choose between the country of your birth and the country of your current residence, the challenge becomes even greater.
This was the situation facing Razy Farook, a fourth-year Commerce student from Sri Lanka, when he walked into a job interview a few weeks ago.
He walked out after answering just one question: Did he have appropriate authorization to work in the United States?

By any standard, College Dean Edward L. Ayers is a busy man. A laminated copy of his weekly schedule and the promptings of secretary and "time keeper" Heidi Winter help Ayers run on schedule as he divides his time between teaching, writing and presiding as dean over three-fourths of the University student body.
While others would find themselves spread too thin, Ayers is known for injecting energy and enthusiasm into all of his commitments.
He was named U.S.